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I haven't written much this past week because frankly I have been swamped and for once it had nothing at all to do with Eve. I went the entire week without logging in except yesterday for Eve-NT practice on SiSi with our NT Team.

Every day I've been going into work and working hard at my new job which I am enjoying tremendously. Not only did I take a new job but I also took one where I felt I could make a real difference. This company is still in start-up mode and desperately needs my help. We run 12 addiction clinics in our state and we're looking to double and triple that in the next year. You've all seen the news headlines or know someone touched by the growing opioid epidemic, and we are the ones out on the front lines working to help people in need. So that's my day job now.

And then on top of that my evenings have been filled with other paying projects. Old friends and business contacts are popping out of the woodwork and everyone has a project they need help with. Which is all great news.

Except for some people. Some people hear about your good fortune and are not pleased. Nothing pleases them of course, they are critical no matter what is happening to you. These vultures are only out for drama and blood. I'm not going to mention any names because that is what they'd like. Little people with little dreams of bringing me down. Which is sad really. Its sad because of how pathetic that kind of dream is. And sad because of how impossible that dream is. I am unaffected by you.

You do not have to like me. I'm not asking for you to like me. And while it would be great if we could all get along outside of Eve, out here in the real world - I'm not foolish enough to believe we all will. There are always a few bad eggs. I can't do anything about that. All I can do is keep moving forward.

I woke up this morning with a familiar pain in my arm. The weather causes it. I will probably have that pain for the rest of my life. It comes from the time I blocked an iron skillet that was flying thru the air towards my Son almost twenty years ago. You think you know me? You think you can sit out there and judge me? You cannot little man. My life, like any life, is a complicated and enduring mess. All I can do is try to survive it, learn from it, and strive to make the world a slightly better place for me having been in it.

Reminder that just like A Band Apart, Bastion and FCON you can have your Alliance or third-party non-Eve-IP featured on the Rixx Store. Just drop me a note and we can get started bringing your gear to the wider community. No group is to small or to large to offer their members branded gear.

Remember to bookmark the store(s) and check back often, because I intend to keep adding and updating on a regular basis. Like in multiple times a week! So that is pretty darn regular.

I know some people are going to have a hard time understanding this, but I am doing this to prove a point. As many of my long-time readers know, I've been at this for a very long time. There are certain people that will remain un-named that do not believe the Eve community can support Eve themed merchandise. Now, while my hands remain tied when it comes to Eve IP and will probably remain so until Hell freezes over, I've decided to initiate Plan B. Plan B was opening my own "theme" store and offering my own creations plus other Alliances like my own, a place to give their members some neat swag. Designed by Rixx. And who wouldn't want that?

I've always believed in the Eve Community. And over the years I've been proven right more often than I've been proven wrong. I personally believe we could have a badass store and I won't stop believing it.

But until then, I'll do the next best thing that I can. One step at a time my friends. One step at a time.

Felt good to be back after a short break to quit smoking, lose my voice, cough my lungs up, go to jail, celebrate Christmas and Thanksgiving, get a new job, and do a few things around the community. Yeah, no big deal.

I hope you enjoy and hopefully I'm back on a more regular schedule now.

Like any hunter, I can read sign. The broken twigs, ruffled leaves, change in the breeze, the small subtle tells that broadcast where prey may be located or when... MALLER!! BAIT!!

Exactly. So yesterday I was out hunting in Mr. Biggles, my Fed Navy Comet (Intaki version), when I spotted the Punisher on scan. Now here is the thing, I'd been thru this system a few times already and noticed a few things. Lots of people in system but no one on scan... like, ever. This is a big sign. People are either hiding off grid, or in station, or they are all tired at the same time. And yes, this is one of those systems that is just a tad bigger on both ends that your d-scan. Y'know, in case you wanted to hide a small gang on the edges.

So I went in to a novice plex and started pulling range. In this instance I started slow burning towards the Sun. And sure enough, here comes the Punisher. This should be interesting. Pew Pew. Shoot and pull range, shoot and pull range. The idea is to get yourself off the beacon for when... oh look, surprise, the blob. Sun, overheat, and warp away.

That was cute. Nice try. Keep practicing and someday you'll get better at hiding it.

Have you ever wanted to offer your Corporation/Alliance pilots cool swag, but always bumped up against the problems of cost, design, production, and promotion? As an Alliance Executor myself I know the answer to that question. Which is one reason why I started the Rixx Store! Now you can offer your fellow pilots almost unlimited swag for reasonable prices (including worldwide shipping!) and let me do all the work for you.

We have dozens of shirt styles to choose from! Hoodies and Jackets! Mugs! Notebooks, Phone Cases, laptop bags and stickers, actual stickers, travel mugs, clocks, blankets, skirts, leggings... the list is long and it can get rather silly to be honest. But the important news is that you aren't just limited to a few shirts. And so far all the feedback I've been getting has been positive, the quality is very good.

I chose RedBubble for their wide selection, quality and shipping costs. And the quality of their printing. The store has only been up for a month now and I'm adding new content every single week! And so far I've driven over 12,000 visitors to the site! Which is another reason to lump everything together into one store, so that everyone benefits from the same traffic.

It's an idea whose time has come. So if you want to have your Alliance or Corporation's merch custom designed by me and available to everyone who wants it, just send me an email and let's do eet!

Shortly after I started playing Eve I joined my first Corporation. For the first few weeks we mostly stayed around high-sec space and I tried to shoot rats and guard mining operations. But it wasn't long before our Corp joined an Alliance based out of Providence and everyone started talking about moving to Zero Space (Back then I don't remember anyone calling it Null. We all referred to it as Zero). Back then I was a very casual Eve player. I enjoyed it, but I really didn't have that much time to dedicate to it. So I had never been in Zero before, heck I had only rarely ventured into Low. And usually that ended with me getting exploded.

My CEO was great. And one day it came time to move down to PI-5 in Providence. So I jumped into my Merlin and the CEO scouted me down the pipe. This was the first time I encountered "reds" that weren't NPCs, they were other players. It all sounds so basic now, but at the time this was all new to me. That trip introduced me to 'Safe Spots" and the entire concept of bookmarks. And how important scouts are. And how small and insignificant I was.

My inspiration today is in recognition of all the mentors that I have encountered in my own Eve journey. And how important they have all been in making me the Eve player I am today. I remember my first 10m iskies, and how I managed to lose almost all of it in one single day. It was the first time I considered quitting Eve. A player in our Corporation, who lived in Brazil if I remember correctly, gave me 150m isk as a gift. That changed everything for me.

That act of kindness has stuck with me all these years later. It is why today I often pay back isk to those I explode. Especially the very young or very inexperienced. I often think of myself on that day, standing on the edge of quitting this game. If I had made that decision then, I would never have experienced all of the amazing things that Eve has given me in the eight years since then. I'm eternally grateful for the kindness, compassion and understanding that so many people have shown me over the years. Especially in those formative early years in Providence.

If anything today I'd like to encourage those of you reading these words to consider your own actions in light of mentorship. Especially us older veterans. We don't often consider that our own actions, words, attitudes, and actions impact those around us. Our fellow Corp mates certainly, but also those that happen to encounter us in space. What we say, how we act, how we conduct ourselves is what makes Eve come to life for everyone. Not just ourselves.

As for me, this is a big part of why the Pirate Code has grown to me so much to me over the past six years. I believe Eve is a PvP game first and foremost. But I also believe that it can be played at a higher level. And that higher level is what Stay Frosty and A Band Apart are all about. It is what we stand for. This past week we had an incident in our Corporation of a pilot that did not share those beliefs with us. As a result our name got slightly smudged a bit in certain circles. It happens every so often, we are after all an Open Recuitment Corporation and always will be. That pilot was summarily kicked from Stay Frosty and set red. But it got me thinking. Living in the narrow space between aggression and honor is not an easy place to be for some. And as much as I have been helped by so many positive mentors over the years, there have also been many, many negative ones as well.

Thing is, I can be a scum-sucking Pirate and a heck of a nice guy all at the same time. And yes, I will often role-play the role of Pirate Lord in local because it is often fun to do so. But doing so doesn't have to define my entire character. Nor does it.

So I encourage you today. No matter what role you enjoy playing in-game, from miner to high-sec ganker, remember the other person and how your actions can impact their game and their life in Eve. Strive to be the better version of yourself every time you log-in.

And perhaps you'll help someone else make the decision to stay and play, instead of quit.

It is often the case when a single day in New Eden can surprise you, even when you've been playing as long as I have. It is, after all, one of the reasons I keep playing. Eve is rarely boring for very long, especially when you are actively looking to be entertained. That is my sole purpose for playing. I want to enjoy it, have fun, and challenge myself. And also hang out with my fellow Stay Frosty pilots.

Yesterday was one of those days. I'm going to go by the zKill measure of "days" which is really two days for me. Or parts of two days. Whatever. Its all made up anyway isn't it?

It started with me encountering my very first Sunesis thingie. Frankly I hadn't given the ship much thought since it landed in our hangars. Usually the Holiday ships, while cool and all, are usually not much for PvP. I came to help Watson kill the thing but he died shortly after I landed. The Slicer I was in was not my Slicer, a fellow pilot had given it to me as he left Corp the day before. It is always weird flying a ship you didn't fit yourself. No matter the fit, I always have this strange itch about it. Its like wearing someone else's clothes. I knew nothing about this Sunesis. All I knew was that I was kiting like a Boss and he wasn't dying. The Slicer cap is notoriously bad so as soon as it started to fade I made my decision. Let's burn and test his tank. So I turned into him and overheated everything. It didn't matter and I went BOOM.

Ok fine. Time to fit one of those for myself.

Phantasm in local. And he seemed to be solo. Well then I told Watson to grab something with a tank and decent dps to bait with, and meanwhile I'd sneak into a safe spot with every laser ships worst nightmare, the Curse. Full rack of neuts and TDs. Sure enough Mr. Phantasm couldn't resist the Gila bait and the game was afoot. One thing you tend to forget when you fly Frigates alot is just how long bigger ships take to warp!! Sheesh the Curse is sloooow. I eventually did land slightly further away than planned, and Watson's Gila was really feeling it. But after a cycle of neut power and the TDs finally landing, the Phantasm simply shut down and exploded. So many tears in local after that one. Seriously dude, we were nice about it only bringing two ships to the fight. The Cruor doesn't count, he only landed after the fight was decided. And we let your pod live. Trust me, there are groups out there that would have dropped a Moros on you. Their initials are EE and/or SC. Just sayin.

I had an excellent 2v1 with a Comet and an Incursus from Aideron Robotics. That was a good fight and they both did very well despite exploding. They did the best they could given the fact that they put blasters on that Comet.

On my way back home I noticed a Hawk in a small plex. I gave this one some serious thought. First of all it'd been a long time since I had fought a Hawk, especially in a Comet. And again, this Comet was not my usual fit, it was also a gift from a fellow SF pilot. So confidence was not at a good level. And the Hawk pilot was in Shadow Cartel. I don't mind exploding pilots from Shadow, but typically they tend to blob me. There were a good number of hidden people in local. But I decided to Hell with all that, it was late, so why not?

As expected I was probably going to lose to the Hawk fair and square. And that's when the Griffin Navy Issue landed and made sure of it. No surprise I lost the Comet. Sad that things played out exactly the way the stereotype dictated.

Over the weekend my wife and I were trying to figure out a way to pay for going to Fanfest this year. Last time we went I sold posters in the Eve Store (the highest selling item at Fanfest btw!) and that helped tremendously to pay for our trip. But this year CCP is still selling my posters without paying me for doing so, almost an entire year now. So that door is sadly closed. So I was joking around about setting up a table outside Harpa and selling pictures or doing caricatures to make money. I mentioned this on Twitter and one thing led to another and this came out:

Which is the creepy stranger van version of Eve.

And that led to someone mentioning how perfect a Stay Frosty Ice Cream truck would be. The idea was so damn good I had to make one. So that is it up in the header. And I thought I should share it here for my readers to enjoy!

We are determined to make Fanfest this year somehow. So we'll figure something out. Luckily I still get free tickets thanks to Eveoganda being an official Fansite. (Thanks Logibro!) So that helps. The rest will take care of itself somehow. I can't say anymore without getting into personal stuffs and we all know how much people enjoy it when I do that!

I started my new full-time wage attachable job on Monday. This is a good thing and I'm enjoying being back in the work-force again. Nothing like getting up and driving thru traffic, weather and idiot drivers again. I sure did miss it. (not)

Just going to take some getting used to. This blog and my Eve playing have survived employment before and they'll do so again. This first week I decided to take it easy as far as both go, give myself some time to get back into the swing of things. I freely admit that I got spoiled working out of my home studio, especially since we moved into the new place over the past Summer. My new studio space is something I've waited my whole life to have at home. Not that it will go to waste or anything. I'm writing this right now in it. So there.

Things change and evolve. Luckily we have great Directors and pilots in ABA and Stay Frosty that can keep things humming along while my schedule changes. We managed to start, grow and expand Stay Frosty during the most turbulent time in my entire life, so this should be a cake walk. At least now I don't have to feel guilty "wasting" time on Internet spaceships.

So hang in there, this crazy journey just took another turn.

PS: This was a real life post. These things are gonna keep happening, so deal with it.

The Rixx Javix Store is updating all the time! I've added a convenient button over on the sidebar ---> to make it even easier to check out the new designs I'm adding. Just this week I added two NEW Stay Frosty designs, and 4 NEW graphic designs. The response to the store has been fantastic and the feedback has been extremely positive, the quality of the merchandise, the shipping costs (all over the world!), and the price of the items has been positive.

Watson seems happy with his purchases!

Stickleback's wife surprised him with this shirt!

Send me your pics and I'll be sure to share them here! I'll be adding even more merchandise in the coming weeks and months, so be sure to check back often. If you have any requests, or if you'd like to include your own Alliance or Corporation in the Store, please let me know. I'm more than willing to work with you to create merchandise for your pilots to enjoy!

Stay Frosty. 270 Pilots. Born 3 Years and 8 Months ago. 55% Solo and 45% Small Gang. 75,000+ Ships exploded. 3.02t in Lootz recovered. Member of A Band Apart Alliance for 2 Years and 9 Months. Aggressively Active. Can appear anywhere at anytime.

Those are some stats. But they are just numbers. And numbers only tell a certain side of a certain story. We are our numbers, but we are also so much more. You don't become the largest Pirate Corporation in New Eden just from numbers. So what is it about Stay Frosty that makes us unique in Eve?

I had a dream. More of an ideal really. And the success of Stay Frosty stems directly from the fact that I established that ideal environment and have never ever wavered from it. It isn't for everyone this dream. In some cases it makes no sense whatsoever. But it is the same now as it was almost 4 years ago. It has not changed, adapted, or evolved over time. And I remain as dedicated to it now as I did then.

Its simple really. And its all about Freedom and Honor. The Freedom to suck, to be terrible, to derp, to challenge yourself, to succeed on your own merits, to fly whatever you want, or whatever you can afford, to take on impossible fights, to lose everything, to gain confidence, to become the best version of you that you can - all without judgement. Freedom means that your fellow pilots will support you, help you, fly with you if you want, and do dumbs things by your side - but they will never, ever judge you. Freedom means your killboard can be as red as it needs to be. And no one is getting kicked for it. Or admonished.

Now freedom is important, but it would be chaos without the next part of the recipe - Honor. Honor is based on the Pirate Code, the idea that good fights are the goal of every pilot. That a fight well-played is a fight worth taking every single time. In all cases, in every situation, your word is more important than anything. That your mates can count on you no matter what. And that those in local can expect something from you, just because you are a Stay Frosty pilot. Honor is the most powerful weapon in all of Eve. And true Freedom springs from Honor.

Some people make the mistake of thinking Honor means that we don't do everything we can to win. That is not true. This is, after all, Pirate Honor we are talking about. Being true to your Pirate nature, never lying to your friends, having each others backs, doing whatever it takes to have fun and enjoy your time in Eve.

Because, at the end of the day, that is what is truly special about Stay Frosty. We play to have fun. To fly spaceships in space. To Pew Pew and find the good fights. To test ourselves against the universe. To find out what we are made of. To test our own mettle. To stand together, or alone, and find out if we have it.

Some pilots thrive. Some do not. But all of them become a part of our family of friends.

That is why Stay Frosty continues. And why it will always continue. And if that sounds like the kind of Eve experience you've been looking for, young, old, experienced or not, then maybe think about joining up and finding out how much fun it can be to play this game. Because we're having fun. Every single day.

And the best part? Our doors are always open. You apply, you get in. I'm a firm believer in the sink or swim ethos that has served us well since day one.

If you want to talk join our in-game channels EVEOGANDA and/or The Frosty Hammer. And if Pirating isn't your thing A Band Apart has other great Corporations that each cater to a different playstyle all built on the same core values as Stay Frosty. Wormholes, Industry, Missions, Training, and much, much more. Check them out and I'm sure you can find your own place.

So yesterday I'm coming up the pipe from Ostinjelly back home and scanning as I go, when I notice the Golem on scan in Lowes. (And not in Home Depot where they usually are! Low Sec humor.) Anyhoo, I start yelling about it in fleet chat and in typical Stay Frosty fashion it takes awhile for my words to sink into their thick Pirate skulls. "Did he say Golem?" I tease, but we are notoriously terrible at organizing anything. We could be warping in on a transport full of plex and three ships would leave fleet because they found a Tristin in a small plex. Seriously. I love that.

The Golem had Grandchildren by the time we finally got probes out in local. I figured he was either terribly stupid or he had friends. I never counted on the fact that he was both. Wasn't long before we finally had probes out and located him. Hard to hide a Golem. Our Helios pilot was drunk and de-cloaked to point him before our Broadsword landed. So the Golem pilot did the right thing and used his MJD to pull range... but instead of warping away he turned to kill the Helios. Like I said yesterday, always count on stupid. Our Broadsword landed with his infini-point and the game was afoot.

Anytime something like this starts happening in Low Sec its like dropping a bleeding fish in the ocean. It doesn't take long for the sharks to start circling. By the time my Phoon and our other BSs landed we already had company. And things started escalating from there. I'm going to freely admit right here that I'm probably not 100% aware of everything that went down around me. From the moment I landed my focus was on killing the Golem and then saving my Phoon. My secondary focus was on providing deeps to my mates, trying to apply neut pressure to things that had us pointed, and generally help save as many of our ships as possible.

Luckily for me the Phoon is a long-range death dealer, so when things started landing on us after the Golem exploded, I was already about 50k from the wreck. So I pointed my nose at the Sun and started pulling range. Overheated the Phoon does right around 2k, but I had to manage that carefully. I had a nice constant cloud of small annoying ships keeping me pointed, so it was really a patience game. Put my neut on the ship with point, load up the precision cruise missiles, and shoot the ones that were getting too close. I love these kinds of moments in Eve, time starts to act weird and it feels like these moments get stretched out reaaaallly slow. Nothing that was near me posed an immediate threat, but my Phoon isn't active tanked either, so the damage adds up eventually. I decided to switch to the iHub as my align point, as it was more in line with the out gate. I knew I'd have aggro timers so going straight to the gate could prove to be a costly mistake. And finally they lost point and away I warped...

Right into a bunch of small ships waiting for me. Of course. It wouldn't have been so bad if it hadn't been for the ECM ship. By this time a bunch of Stay Frosty pilots had arrived in system or re-shipped, so I asked for some help to get the ECM ship off me. That worked like a charm and eventually I was able to warp to a pounce above the out gate. Immediately to a safe spot, align to station, wait on the timer to expire (12 or so seconds left) and then dock in station.

Good fights in local.

I was feeling so good about how we did that I ended up paying our pilots for some of their losses out of my own wallet. Like a Boss.

• Due to Cerv's achievement Stay Frosty is the #2 Corporation for the Succubus. Turns out Stay Frosty is popping into many of the top ten rankings, we're #5 in the Comet for example. Which is amazing to me since we're so much younger than say Tuskers or Shadow Cartel, just as an example. Stay Frosty will be 4 years old in May. They grow up so fast.

• Stay Frosty recruitment is ALWAYS OPEN. Except sometimes during times of War (but not usually) and the Alliance Tournament. Join the EVEOGANDA or The Frosty Hammer channel.

• Yesterday a Tristan kept running from me. Not unusual and I had heard the same in Fleet chat, but I thought I'd try anyway. He was obviously stabbed. So I docked up and grabbed the ship that Fozzie built for me, the Maulus Navy Issue. I just took the regular one, not the one with faction scram. So 16k scram range. I land at 17k and he warps off. I have many sayings and words of wisdom when it comes to Eve, but one that is always true is, "Always count on Stupid." So I just sat there and waited. Sure enough in a few minutes Mister WCS lands back in the large plex right on top of me, scram death follows. Turns out he had THREE WCS on his Tristan.

• Dumb can also apply to me sometimes. Or in this case just rotten luck really. I jumped into system and warped to a Large Plex to help Cerv potentially engage a small gang of Frigates. Unfortunately it took a minute to register that a Bifrost had jumped into system behind me. Yeah, just as that thought had finally formed in my brain he landed right next to me. With his buddy the Worm. Needless to say I went boom.

• I can't remember the last time I flew a Cynabal. So yesterday I flew one against a Scythe Fleet Issue and a Ospery Navy Issue who were together, with great success. I may have to start flying it more often.

• Methea Selenis led Stay Frosty last month with 590 kills (590(10.00b)-98(1.48b)87.11% Eff) Which is just insane. Methea has been tearing it up in LowSec last year and has become a pilot to be reckoned with. I could not possibly be more proud. Congratulations and well done Methea. I can't wait to see what records you break next.

• I had several people hit me up in local yesterday, which is always awesome. Thanks for the well-wishes and the words of support. They do mean a lot and while I can't always answer you, just know that I do (almost) always see them. Even if sometimes a corpmate has to copy and paste them into chat for me.

• I know this flies in the face of all the haters out there, but last year I had more time to play Eve than I've ever had... and yet I played it less than I ever have. There a four or five months last year when I didn't even log-in. I hope to avoid that this coming year and be more active in-game, as well as out. Fingers crossed.

Nothing going on out here in real life. Nothing to talk about at all. I didn't spend all day yesterday applying for every single job I could find. I wouldn't do that. As we all know I am above the petty concerns of normal mortals and I could have just "gotten a job" at any time during the last two years. So I didn't do that. I'm also not in the final stages of negotiation on a full-time Marketing Director position either. So no reason to get all excited about that potential news we should know about tomorrow. Like I said, nothing going on out here. Just wasting time drawing spaceships. Like I do.

Last night I had a movie dream. I have these sometimes. This one was called "The Weather Outside" and its about a regular married couple that is kidnapped while they are talking with the local drunken weather man by a small group of Terrorists who have a dirty bomb they need to transport in the back of a cargo van from one side of the US to the other. The trick being that the bomb can't be exposed to certain barometric pressure variations or else it explodes. So the husband and wife have to pretend to be weather people or else the terrorists will kill them, as well as try to alert the authorities, keep the drunk actual weather man working, and try to save their marriage and the world during a long road trip with four islamic terrorists across the American heartland.

A classic road trip film with modern sensibilities and valuable lessons about Trump's America, religion and what it means to be human.

I'm sure there will be a Reddit post at some point today bitching about Rixx shoving stupid movie ideas down our throats all in an attempt to trick everyone into donating to his non-existent crowdfunding scheme. Can't wait.

By the way, that art up there is FREE to download. If you want the hi-res print version contact me.

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Welcome to EVEOGANDA!

Eve + Propaganda = Eveoganda. Your one-stop Eve Magazine and gateway to the Eve Community, for over seven years Eveoganda has been raising Hell, taking names and openly mocking things that need to be mocked. All in the name of fun, adventure and internet spaceships.

Email me at RixxJavix@gmail.com

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